Those waiting for news about this year’s Maverick Music Festival are wondering whether the show is still on. Though previous years’ lineups were announced by early February, there’s been no word from organizers, and inquiries into details about this year’s event have, so far, come up short.
After the 2016 festival, festival founder Blayne Tucker told the San Antonio Current that he saw the operation going in one of two directions: “[The festival] seems to be bustling to a point where we need to … expand,” Tucker said. “Alternatively, I think it should cease altogether. One or the other.”
That didn’t stop the show from continuing into its fifth year last April. The 2017 festival attracted over 18,000 attendees to San Antonio’s La Villita Historic Arts Village; headliners included Young the Giant, De La Soul and Bastille, though the 40-plus lineup included local performers and other touring acts as well.
Last June, organizers sought a partnership with the city’s Tricentennial Commission. A proposed $1.2 million sponsorship would have included Maverick as an official event of the 2018 Tricentennial celebrations, but the commission said the funds just weren’t there.
“In that spirit of inclusivity, we recommended a redesign of the music festival component of the commemoration to allow for multiple festivals and their organizers to thrive as Community Partners,” wrote Tricentennial CEO Edward Benavides in a news release sent June 14, 2017. “The Tricentennial welcomes all genres of music festivals so that we can best reflect the volume of musical expressions that bring our city to life.”
Even after the funding opportunity fell through, Tucker emphasized that the 2018 festival would continue, disclosing that the Tobin Center’s Vice President of Programming and Marketing, Aaron Zimmerman, had joined the organizing team. Nonetheless, Maverick’s social media accounts haven’t been updated since October 2017, and attempts to reach the management were unsuccessful by press time.
Considering Tucker’s 2016 statement to the Current, organizers may have chosen “the other” alternative for the 2018 festival.
